Category: ProSite

Meet Alejandro Giraldo, an illustrator and art director from Medellín Columbia who has worked on some incredible freelance projects and has great insight into inspiration, motivation and personal projects. Take a closer look!

How long have you been working in your creative field?I think humans are creative since the day they were born, but some of us just decided to get a diploma and make that for a living. So, I’ve been in my creative field for 28 years and I’ve been a freelance illustrator for 3 years now.

Each month, our curators select one ProSite to feature as “ProSite of the Month”. Our January selection goes to InlandStudio from Buenos Aires, Argentina. Led by Gonzalo Nogues, Javier Bernales, and Julian Nunez, this motion & design studio’s dedication to quality and detail in every project has led to collaborations with brands like Mtv, Samsung, and Microsoft.

Each month, our curators select one ProSite to feature as “ProSite of the Month”. Our December selection goes to London-based Andy Hau, who runs a studio specializing in architecture, product design, and graphic design. Inspired by everything from the Eames Brothers to the largest of buildings to the smallest of logos, they describe their design solutions as “slightly left-of-center.” If their work is anything like their website design – we’re hooked.

Each month, our curators select one ProSite to feature as “ProSite of the Month”. Our September pick goes to Mexico-based MEMOMA, a creative team specializing in motion design who have worked with brands like National Geographic, Unilever, Canal 34, and more. Their personal motto? Flow.Adapt.Create. Check them out!

Meet Carl Sutton. He is a graphic designer and illustrator living in Wales. His work is an exploration of deconstruction, anatomy, entomology and symmetry and we had the pleasure of getting a closer look into his projects, process and ProSite.

How long have you been working in your creative field?I’ve been working commercially since I graduated in 2009. Since then I’ve floated between studio and freelance work. These days I work on personal and commercial projects side by side.

Do your personal projects differ from your professional work? If yes, how so?Over the years I’ve slowly seen the gap between commercial and personal work close. I try to take as much opportunity with commercial design as possible. I enjoy the challenge of visual communication through collaboration. Visually interpreting concepts or generating ideas from discussions. I retain a certain visual style throughout all of my work but I’m happy to experiment a little more with commercial projects. Widen the palette and try new things.

Each month, our curators select one ProSite to feature as “ProSite of the Month”. Our June pick goes to Maarten Deckers, a Belgium based designer, typographer and design consultant who specialized in identities, logos, books, magazines

Each month, our curators select one ProSite to feature as “ProSite of the Month”. Our June pick goes to Dustin Chessin, a California based designer who runs an apparel and custom typography focused design studio called Union Dues Design Co.

We had a great time interviewing Alex Yaeger, a graphic designer and illustrator who focuses on creating original and intriguing concepts to best serve his clients.

How long have you been in design?In some ways, since I was a child. My parents were both landscape architects by degree and I was always surrounded by an abundance of drafting tools. I always enjoyed fictional settings in illustrated books and video games that fleshed out their worlds with logos, maps, and schematics. I would often emulate those sorts of creations in my spare time and especially during less-appealing classes in school. At one point, I even designed a logo for a photography studio my mother temporarily worked at. Despite this, I didn’t realize that I wanted to make a career out of my creativity until I was in my second year of college. Having been somewhat aimless and uncertain about my future before, entering the graphic design program really opened my eyes and realized that this was what I was meant to do. Before I left school, I was already tackling freelance and contracted work.

Do your personal projects differ from your professional work? If yes, how so?I tend to think about each project very passionately. Working professionally, this has caused some deal of anxiety as, in the end: a designer does have to defer final say to a client or director. I have gradually learned to accept this and persevere in fulfilling the duties required of me. I think this is an internal struggle all creatives face when making a living based on their talents, sometimes we care too much for our own good. Personal projects and creative exercises are a good way to prevent burn out and, in the end, tend to appeal to and bring in potential clients the most.

We had a great time interviewing Gina Kiel, a freelance illustrator based in New Zealand. As a versatile illustrator and full time mom, she emphasizes the importance of maintaining creativity in her household.

Do your personal projects differ from your professional work? If yes, how so?I like to be versatile so that I can take on a range of good projects which don’t always have to match with my personal work, it keeps things interesting and challenging. It’s good to mix it up so everything doesn’t end up looking the same. I put lots of love into every project I work on so I think there’s naturally an essence that ties all my work together, it’s all coming from the same place. I am pretty selective about projects that I show on my website, it’s the work I most enjoy creating and the directions I’d like to explore further. I believe one of the ultimate achievements is to attract professional commissions based on personal work.

What do you think are the most important elements to focus on, when creating a personal website?Keeping the design of the website simple and minimal to let the work itself be the main focus is important, I think. To put thought into presenting different projects well visually and making the descriptions short but clear. Choose your best work to display and make sure you keep on top of it, update it, maintain your blog, put new work on and take off any old work that you no longer relate to, keep it current.

How long have you been in design?I’ve been designing since High School and started freelancing around that time but didn’t really take it serious as my career until about 5 years ago. Total years designing has been 10 years.

Do your personal projects differ from your professional work? If yes, how so?They do tend to be different. I currently work full-time for Disney where my current role requires me to design and illustrate training materials. My freelance/personal work is very stylistically different and tends to be the work I am most passionate about. All my work outside of Disney tends to nod back to the earlier design era where illustration was king and it all had a handcrafted look.

What do you think are the most important elements to focus on, when creating a personal website?The most important thing to me is that who you are and the type of work you want to be doing is proudly displayed. In the past I would literally post anything and everything I was working on….even if it sucked. I was so caught up on making it look like I had a lot of work that I started getting the wrong kind of inquires. It wasn’t until I stripped down my site and dropped all the garbage that I began to get the kind of work I could see myself doing for the rest of my life. Your site needs to give someone a snapshot of your passion for art and your skills within seconds or you will lose them.